Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Auctions and other fun and games

The insurance company paid up so Friday was spent looking at cars. I took a Nissan Primera for a test run. It was very good to drive but it was being sold on TradeMe and not closing for a few more days. Having looked at a few others I decided to narrow down the search to this model in an estate/wagon, in silver or gold. We found one at Auction and due to go under the hammer Saturday morning. So, after due diligence - ruling out a gold one due to yucky looking and smoky smelling interior - we bid up to our ceiling price where the opposing bidder also stalled and we got the car for just $100 more. Only have to wait to Tuesday to colect it, so they can have it registered and put the plates on (it's a used one fresh off the boat from Japan).

In the afternoon we played some board games and Tamsin made fresh bread for us which guaranteed her a place to stay for the next few days.

Sunday, after the excitement of car auctions and David Byrne we had a lazy day. Took Tamsin to Takapuna market for a wander around the stalls. She nearly bought a pan for gold panning but turned out it was a large flattish wok. We bought some yummy pastries and coffee for breakfast, which we ate in the adjoining park, feeding scraps to a loud gang of pigeons, seagulls and sparrows. Also bought a pile of cheap veggies. Then to JB HiFi to look for an FM iPod transmitter for my car. They had the whole back catalog of Neil Young CDs for $9 each so I got a few I was missing.

Back home Tam & I played board games. JK was exempted from game duty - I am keeping my birthday "play a game with me" voucher for an emergency. We had several rounds of Settlers of Catan, SET, and Moose in The House (a very silly card game) which kept us amused until past midnight when we suddenly remembered it was Monday and scurried to bed.

Monday was a working day and quite a busy stressful one. I hitched a ride in with T in the rattling truck and in the evening she treated us to a Thai meal before departing for her abode in Papatoetoe that her tenant had vacated.